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Charter of the French Language

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The Charter of the French Language (also known as Bill 101 and Loi 101) is a law in the province of Quebec, Canada defining French as the only official language of Quebec.

Proposed by Camille Laurin, the Minister of Cultural Development under the first Parti Québécois government of Premier René Lévesque, it was passed into law by the National Assembly on August 26, 1977. The Charter's provisions expanded on the 1974 Official Language Act (Bill 22), which was enacted under Premier Robert Bourassa's Liberal government to make French the sole official language of Quebec. Prior to 1974, Quebec was legally bilingual (English and French).

Objective

The preamble of the Charter states that French is the official language of Quebec and its government and law, as well as "the normal and everyday language of work, instruction, communication, commerce and business". It also states that the National Assembly is to pursue this objective "in a spirit of fairness and open-mindedness, respectful of the institutions of the English-speaking community of Québec, and respectful of the ethnic minorities, whose valuable contribution to the development of Québec it readily acknowledges". In addition, it states that the National Assembly of Quebec recognizes the right of the First Nations of Quebec, "to preserve and develop their original language and culture".

Titles

Title I defines the status of the French language in the legislature, the courts, the civil administration, the semipublic agencies, labour relations, commerce and business, and language of instruction. It also defines French as a fundamental language right of every person in Quebec.

  1. The right of persons to have all government branches, professional corporations, employee associations and enterprises doing business in Quebec communicate with them in French.
  2. The right of persons to speak French in deliberative assemblies.
  3. The right of workers to carry on their activities in French.
  4. The right of consumers to be informed and served in French.
  5. The right of persons eligible for instruction in Quebec to receive that instruction in French.

Title II pertains to the linguistic officialization, toponymy, and the francization of the civil service and Crown corporations.

Title III establishes the Office québécois de la langue française, defines its mission, powers, and organization.

Title IV establishes the Conseil supérieur de la langue française.

Title V and VI define penal provisions and sanctions and transitional and miscellaneous provisions.

Dispositions

In order to achieve the goal of making French the normal and everyday language of Quebec, the Charter contains a number of key dispositions and various regulations. The Office québécois de la langue française (Quebec Office of the French language) is the government branch responsible to oversee the application of the Charter.

Language of civil service

The Charter makes French the sole official language of communication of the state. This means that the government of Quebec and all its branches communicate primarily in French with its residents. To this day, French is the de facto language of government and civil service; however, the same cannot be said of the private sector. The francization programs for businesses were largely successful in the 1980s; however, the 1990s saw the return of bilingualism and the exclusive usage of English in a number of new economic sectors that did not exist in Quebec before, for example the high-tech industry.[citation needed]

Language of instruction

One of the Charter's objectives is to increase the knowledge of French among the immigrant population so that it integrates to the mainstream society of Quebec. To do so, a disposition stipulates that children attending public schools must do so in French until the post-secondary level. It is however possible to attend non-subsidized private school in any language if the parents choose to. An exception allows for children to attend the English-language public schools if either one of the parents received his/her education in English in Canada. With this exception to the rule, the constitutional rights of the English-speaking minority of Quebec are protected. The original 1977 Charter made it legal only for children of a parent who had received his/her education in English in Quebec. This had to be amended following the adoption of the Constitution Act 1982, which defined the educational right of French and English minorities in all provinces under section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Another disposition provides for state-funded French courses for immigrants. This measure is quite popular with newcomers; however, it has been thus far inadequately funded by all Quebec governments. Quebec has become a popular destination for emigrants from French-speaking areas, especially Indochina and Haiti, because the province combines a Francophone culture with North American economic opportunities.

Language of labour relations

The Charter makes French the official language in the workplace. In particular, current and prospective employees cannot be subject to discrimination if they are unable to or do not wish to use a language other than French. A regulation states that internal written communications for all corporations in Quebec must be in French, but a translation in any other language may be included if the employer deems it necessary.

After more than 25 years of application of the Charter, English is still often made a requirement by employers in Montreal and to a lesser extent Gatineau and Quebec City. Most non-tourist areas outside these three urban centres are completely francophone.

Anglophone and Aboriginal minorities

When the Charter was drafted, the National Assembly had to consider the historical and constitutional rights of the English-speaking minority and that of the aboriginal peoples. The Charter includes several guarantees for the uses of languages other than French in Quebec. It provides, for example, that:

  • Quebec laws are published in English as well as in French;
  • Persons may address courts of law in either French or English;
  • Judgments by courts are made available in either the official language or in English upon request by one of the parties;
  • The Charter does not apply on Indian reserves (Instruction in Cree and Inuit school boards are respectively in the Cree and Inuktitut languages);

Some of these guarantees are constitutionally mandatory under section 133 of the Constitution Act, 1867, which requires federal and Quebec laws to be enacted in both English and French. The first version of the Charter of the French language stated that the laws of Quebec would only be published in French, so the provision was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada in Blaikie v. Quebec (Attorney General) [1979] 2 S.C.R. 1016.

A number of exceptions are also made to the general rules for commercial production, signage, and advertising:

  • Products destined exclusively for export;
  • Educational products for the teaching of a language other than French;
  • Cultural and ideological companies, groups, signs, and literature (including non-French broadcasters, newspapers, etc.);
  • Companies (usually multinational corporations) that sign an agreement with the OQLF permitting an exemption from the francization requirement. (However, the rules regarding the right of a worker to work in French still apply.)
Main article: Legal dispute over Quebec's language policy

Language in Canada is defined federally by the Official Languages Act and is part of the Canadian Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada has made rulings with respect to the Quebec Charter. Because of this, some of the Charter's articles have been changed since its introduction in 1977. The most well-known and controversial change affected the regulation of exterior commercial signs. In its first enactment the Charter made it illegal for businesses to hold commercial exterior signs in a language other than French. For the time the regulation lasted, it had a huge impact on Quebec's "linguistic visage". English-only and bilingual English and French exterior signs were taken down and replaced by French-only signs. (Note that the regulation did not affect trademarks.)

Following a court challenge, this section of the law was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms in 1988, (see: Ford v. Quebec (A.G.)). The Supreme Court ruled that the Quebec government could legitimately require that French have "greater visibility" or "marked predominance" on exterior commercial signs; however, it could not enforce the exclusive use of French. The Liberal government of Robert Bourassa invoked the notwithstanding clause of the Constitution to temporarily overrule the Supreme court ruling; the Charter was subsequently amended by the Liberals in 1993 with Bill 86 in accordance with the ruling.

As suggested by the Supreme Court ruling, the current law specifies that commercial outdoor signs can be multilingual so long as French is markedly predominant. The current provisions regarding exterior commercial signs were confirmed as constitutional by the Quebec Court of Appeal in R. c. Entreprises W.F.H. [2001] R.J.Q. 2557 (C.A.) (also known as "The Lyon & the Walrus Case"). Today, many businesses choose to put up French-only signs, and at times, even change their registered trademarks to adapt to the Quebec market. Nevertheless, English–French bilingualism quickly returned on exterior signs after 1993, especially on Montreal Island (which has a 53/29/18 Francophone/Allophone/Anglophone split).

The Court of Quebec rendered a number of decisions regarding the applicability of Charter to advertising over the Internet. The court found that commercial websites of businesses that operate from Quebec and sell to Quebec need to conform to the provisions of the Charter regarding the rights of Quebecers to receive services in French. In A.G. of Quebec (Procureur Général) c. Stanley John Reid et Frances Muriel Reid (JE 2002-1266), the defendant raised the argument that the content of Internet is of exclusive federal jurisdiction pursuant to the Constitution Act, 1867, and thus its regulation is ultra vires of the Quebec Government. The court confirmed the applicability of the Charter on advertising over the Internet.

Opposition

Main article: Legal dispute over Quebec's language policy

The Charter of the French Language, though popular among a majority of Francophones, has been poorly received by groups with mother tongues other than French. The enforcers of the Charter, widely referred to in English media as the "language police" or "tongue troopers", are able to levy fines of up to seven thousand dollars per offense to punish those who are not in compliance with the Charter ("Titre V", 2004). By some estimates the Charter has caused up to 300,000 people to emigrate from Quebec since the 1970s, many to the neighbouring province of Ontario [1]. Several large corporations, notably Royal Bank and Bank of Montreal (which even considered removing "Montreal" from its name), moved their major operations to Toronto. Many blame the Charter because it hindered Montreal's economic development, allowing Toronto to overtake Montreal and become the undisputed business capital of Canada.

Although the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) (which is commonly referred to as l'Office) will often provide warnings before resorting to legal sanctions, the alleged abuse of its power has led to charges of racism and harassment being levelled against them by members of minority groups (Martin 2004). The OQLF urged stores to remove imported kosher goods that did not meet labelling requirements, an action perceived in the Jewish community as an unfair targeting that coincided with a high-profile case against the well-known delicatessen, Schwartz's (B'nai B'rith, 1996). In 2002, alternative media highlighted cases of alleged harassment of allophone merchants whose French was perceived by the OQLF as being less than perfect (Gravenor, 2002).

The 2004 annual report of the OQLF was criticized by some in the English media who see it as an example of a totalitarian mindset in the bureaucracy (Macpherson, 2004). The report contained sections describing the continued prevalence of languages other than French in one-third of Montreal's households as "alarming" ("Rapport annuel" 2004).

Political opposition to the Charter and earlier language laws was ineffective since both the Parti Quebecois and Quebec Liberal parties introduced or upheld such legislation. After Bourassa passed the Official Language Act, Anglophones turned their support to the Union Nationale in the 1976 election, but despite that short resurgence of support, the party collapsed in the subsequent election. Rather, court challenges have been more successful.

The provisions of the Charter that limit access to English-speaking schools to the children of those educated in English Canada have also faced criticism and legal challenges, from both francophones and anglophones. Francophone Quebecers have also initiated legal challenges in Quebec's courts, seeking the freedom to educate their children in the language they choose (Hanes 2002). These challenges are particularly controversial, as some see them as threatening to shift the ratio between French students and English students back to pre-Charter levels; many English-language schools in Montreal had been forced to close their doors after the introduction of the Charter in the 1970s.

The use of the notwithstanding clause in the 1990s to circumvent the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms also drew a very negative reaction in other Canadian provinces; the syndrome de Sault Ste. Marie was a series of symbolic but divisive resolutions by some municipalities outside Quebec declaring their towns unilingually English in protest of this infringement on the rights embodied in the Canadian charter.

Aside from the issue of civil rights, the Charter has faced legal challenges because the restricted education opportunities have hindered commerce and employment. Although the Charter made French the de facto language of government and civil administration, the same cannot be said of the private sector. The francization programs for businesses were largely successful in the 1980s; however, the 1990s saw the return of bilingualism and the exclusive usage of English in a number of new economic sectors that did not exist in Quebec before, for example the hi-tech industry. Despite more than 25 years of application of the Charter, English is still often made a requirement by employers in Montreal and to a lesser extent Quebec City.

On November 14, 1988 the political and human rights watchdog organization Freedom House published “The Doctrine of ‘Preponderance of Blood’ in South Africa, the Soviet Union and Quebec”in its journal Exchange. Introduced by Zbigniew Brzezinski, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s National Security advisor, the essay compared the language of instruction provisions of the Charter with South African apartheid statutes and jurisprudence. The statutes of both Quebec and the now-defunct South Africa apartheid system employ the “doctrine of preponderance of blood“ which is the assigning of classifications to individuals based upon who one’s parents are, what the parents’ classification is, and the handing down of this classification from one generation to the next, in perpetuity. The conclusion: the Quebec Charter's language of instruction provisions produce de facto segregation of civil rights. The basic premise of free and democratic societies of equality under the law is violated by the creation of two separate civil rights categories: those individuals that can freely choose to send their children to either French or English publicly funded schools and those that are forced to send their children only to French publicly funded schools. It should be noted, however, that the Supreme Court of Canada refused the discrimination-based-on-ancestry argument under the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms in Gosselin (Tutor of) v. Quebec (Attorney General) on the grounds that it conflicted with s. 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Trivia

One of the specifics of the Charter is insistence of French instructions for all products. During the 1990s Pokémon craze, the then PQ-led government pushed for the publication of French-translated Pokémon cards, lest Wizards of the Coast and the various stores selling the cards be fined. A line of French cards was produced, but did not gain as much value among collectors as the original English and Japanese versions. [2]

As of 2003, all video games sold in Quebec must include French instructions. Stores holding unused games with English-only instructions will be fined for each individual offending copy and see their merchandise seized. Though, humorously enough, the translation of the instruction booklets, as well as even the back of video game boxes with French translations on them, are sometimes lousy (“carnivore plante“ behind Super Mario Sunshine's box) and the French booklets usually lack colors.

See also

Notes


References

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